Christopher McNeill

Associate Professor Christopher McNeill returns from Cambridge University to join the Monash University, Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering as a Senior Lecturer.

Associate Professor McNeill took up his veski innovation fellowship in May 2011.

Research project title:Nanostructuring and nanocharacterisation of organic semiconductor devices

Research project description:The field of organic semiconductor research has grown dramatically over the last 10 years. The development of new materials combined with improved processing and environmental stability has led to the release of the first consumer products utilising organic light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors and photovoltaic cells. However, the full commercial potential of organic semiconductor devices has yet to be realised.

To ensure further development of organic semiconductor technology further advances are required in materials development, materials processing and materials characterisation. An improvement in our understanding of the device physics of organic semiconductor devices is also required in order to link materials properties with device parameters to enable intelligent and directed materials development.

This research program will utilise new approaches to pattern organic solar cells on the nanoscale to realise improved efficiencies and improved understanding of device operation. This program will also develop soft x-ray techniques to probe the nanostructure of organic semiconductor films with increased chemical and interfacial specificity.

Key facts:

Christopher has an international reputation in the area of combined structural and device characterisation in organic electronics

He spent six years at the University of Cambridge, UK, as a Research Associate and an Engineering Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) Advanced Research Fellow

His wife is a consulting engineer working on large-scale industrial projects and also grew up in Newcastle